SUGAR CONTENT; gintama oneshots

to reach you - kawakami bansai

school! au

happy birthday kawakami bansai! may 20th!!

When (Y/N) woke up on Thursday morning, she had half a mind to bury her face back into her pillow and forget school existed for another fifteen minutes. She let out an annoyed sigh as her alarm began ringing, one that stopped abruptly when she caught sight of what day it was - on her calendar, circled and starred in blue marker, was the date. The date she had been waiting for ever since he had mentioned to her offhandedly in the hall, the day of her crush's birthday.

With a slight yelp, she fell out of her bed, hitting the floor with a thud when she tried and failed to detangle herself from her sheets. In a whirlwind of clothes and notebooks, (Y/N) got ready for school, smoothing out the creases in her school uniform with an elegance that she normally lacked. After fashioning her hair into a style suiting of her enthusiasm, she grabbed her bookbag and made her way downstairs.

"Today's the big day!" Her mother sang knowingly.

(Y/N) sat at the kitchen table, biting into one of the pieces that was set out. Through a mouthful of bread, she asked, "Have I really been talking about it that much?"

"Dear, you wrote it on every calendar in the house the other day when you're panicking that you might forget." 

"That was a lapse of judgement!" (Y/N) protested, now feeling a little embarrassed by her past actions.

Her mother only continued, "I was afraid you were going to tattoo the date onto your arm."

A heated blush rushed across (Y/N)'s face. "Mom! I wouldn't - oh, wait, maybe that's not a bad idea."

Before she could think up the pros and cons of getting the date May 20th as a tattoo, (Y/N) realized she had to make it to school at least fifteen minutes before homeroom began so she could find an opportunity to tell him. Her goal today was to tell her crush, Kawakami Bansai, 'happy birthday', no matter how many tries it took (though, hopefully, it only took one). 

The first attempt took place before homeroom started, when he was playing his shamisen to kill time. Bansai sat in the back of class, leaning back in his chair and strumming the instrument with a worn bachi, wearing his headphones and sunglasses until the teacher inevitably arrived and told him to take them off while at school. 

There were a couple of other students in class already, but after they gave the obligatory 'good mornings', they went back to paying (Y/N) no mind. That didn't matter though, what mattered right now was that (Y/N)'s words reached him.

She made her way over to Bansai's desk, nervously playing with her fingers as she debated between tapping his desk or talking to get his attention. Luckily, she didn't have to do either, as Bansai looked up at her, and although he didn't stop playing, she knew he was listening.

"Good morning, Bansai-san. I just...I...uh...wanted to say you play the shamisen very well!" (Y/N) said, her voice raising a bit to high at the end as she ultimately failed to say the words she wanted to. She knew she should have practiced in the mirror an extra hour. 

"Thank you," he said, nodding his head. 

Seeing as how he expected that to be the end of the conversation, he went back to focusing solely on his instrument, leaving (Y/N) to grumble quietly under her breath at her own stupidity as she walked back to her desk. She stayed with her head buried in her arms while the rest of the students in her class trickled in, thinking of all the times in the day where she could potentially tell him. 

Confessing was one thing, but who knew trying to tell someone 'happy birthday' was so difficult?

Her following classes before lunch went by as though each of them was an eternity, but then, at long last, it was time to get out the bento boxes. After some extensive research (by research, she meant walking past one day), (Y/N) learned that Bansai ate lunch with his two friends, delinquent Takasugi and top of the archery team Matako, underneath the trees in the school courtyard. With the cherry blossoms currently in bloom, she couldn't imagine a more romantic scene to confess under, but that was not her priority today. Her birthday wishes would reach him today, hopefully underneath the cherry blossom trees.